The title says it all. I made a doll-size Kili coat. Kili is a dwarf from the book and movies The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. I’m a big Tolkien geek. 🙂 This coat is what Kili wears when you see him for the first time in the first movie- The Hobbit: an Unexpected Journey.

Credit to whoever owns this picture.

Kili’s on the right. I made a VERY simplified version of his greyish-blue coat, basically from memory (and using the materials we had). I love all the celtic designs…

Have you ever seen any of The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings movies? (Bonus points if you’ve read the books!) If so, who are your favorite characters?

Hi readers! Happy belated St. Lucia day! 😀 (It was on December 13th.)

This holiday is very special in Kirsten’s stories. In Kirsten’s Surprise, Kirsten, with the help of her cousins, dresses up as St. Lucia and serves the traditional treats to her family.

Picture from American Girl Wikia

The gown above is the one AG sold.

Since we don’t have Kirsten’s St. Lucia gown, I decided to make one! I used Josefina’s blouse from her feast outfit and a red ribbon we had lying around. For the wreath, I scrounged in the basement and found some faux leaves that twine around each other nicely. The candle is just from a box.

This is the result! It’s not a perfect match, but it will do. 🙂 A VERY IMPORTANT TIP: If you use real candles for a doll’s St. Lucia outfit, do NOT Light the candles!!!! You could damage your doll.

A few days ago, I posted Freckles and Flowers (a photoshoot). This is a tutorial for the hairstyle I did on Julia. I call it a “celtic knot”, but it’s also known as a five-strand braid. 😀

As usual, the first step is to mist your doll’s hair with water and brush it out. Make sure it’s tangle-free, otherwise seperating the sections will be very difficult. (I’ve learned this the hard way.) 🙂

Now seperate the hair into two sections, one above and one lower. Tie off the lower section.

Seperate the top section into five equal parts. Set the two left hand strands to the side.

Start braiding the two right hand strands and the center strand.

Then, take a strand from the braid and braid it with the two left hand strands.

Go back and forth, braiding first the right side, then the left. (You’ll probably need to do this a couple of times before you get the desired look.)

When you’ve reached the desired endpoint, tie off all the strands with an elastic.

Remember that bottom section? Untie the elastic, and arrange the hair however you wish.

I curled Julia’s hair a bit.

Now your doll has a beautiful celtic knot hairstyle! I hope the directions were clear enough, and feel free to comment with questions!

I love the movie Frozen, so I thought it would be fun to make a tutorial for the Anna cape! You could also use this tutorial for a colonial cape for Felicity, a hobbit cape, or any doll that needs a cool cape! 🙂 It requires no sewing AT ALL, and I did it start to finish in less than an hour, including stops to figure it out and take photos. You can do it!

You’ll need:

felt

fabric scissors

ribbon

measuring tape

piece of scratch paper

pencil

pins

Step 1:

Cut out a square of felt 18 1/2″ long and 10 1/2″ wide.

Step 2:

Fold your fabric in half, and cut a soft curve at the bottom. Unfold your fabric.

Step 3:

Use your piece of scrap paper and cut a rough half circle, shown above. Pin to a new piece of felt, and cut around the paper. (I used an old doodle page 🙂 )

Step 4:

Unpin the paper from the felt. The felt should look like the felt in the right picture.

Step 5:

Your diameter should be about 10″. Fold the straight part in half, and pin.

Step 6:

Every 1″, cut a small slit. DON’T CUT THE SLITS TOO NEAR THE TOP OF THE FABRIC!!! THEY WILL RIP!

Step 7:

When you finish cutting, unpin the fabric. The slits should look like this.

Step 8:

Okay, I didn’t take a photo. Sorry! Line up the half-circle piece of fabric with your rectangle of fabric, and cut slits in the rectangle fabric, on the top, in the same places as the half-circle fabric’s slits. You will want to pin the rectangle fabric like you did with the half-circle. Then unpin, and overlap the two fabric pieces.

Step 9:

Now that your pieces are overlapped, take your ribbon and weave it through the slits, as shown above.

Step 10:

Take the two ends of the ribbon and scoot the fabric towards the middle, but not too close.

Step 11:

Once you have gathered to your preference, knot the ends to keep it in place.

Step12:

Round the bottom of the cape a bit more, or leave it to trail behind the doll. (For an Elsa cape.)

And you’re done! I later did some simple decorative stitching on the borders, but you can leave it plain.

My ribbon was a bit on the wee side, but you could always change it out!

This pic shows the train. This is longer than the one in the film.

If you want to make a matching cape for yourself, go to thedisneykids.com for their tutorial!

Did you like the tutorial? Did you make a cape? Tell us in the comments!